|
Last of the Original Drifters Dies at 81
Jul 5, 6:51 AM (ET)
Bill Pinkney, the only surviving member of the iconic group The Drifters, died Wednesday,
July 4, 2007, in a Daytona Beach hotel room.
Pinkney, 81, was in Daytona to perform at the city's Red, White & Boom event with The Original Drifters, a
group he formed in the late 1950s after leaving The Drifters.
Hilton hotel security personnel found Pinkney inside his room, said Daytona Beach police Chief Mike Chitwood. Someone
alerted hotel security after seeing a prone Pinkney through a window.
"The drapes to his window were open and when you looked . . . you could see a person laying there," Chitwood
said.
It was unclear Wednesday how Pinkney died.
"My medic said that family members said he had a history of heart problems," said Lt. John King, a spokesman
for the Daytona Beach Fire Department.
Emergency medics were called to Pinkney's hotel room just before 6:30 p.m. King said that, according to relatives,
Pinkney had left his family an hour before and "went to lay down." He was supposed to meet up later with
his secretary in the hotel lobby.
When medics arrived at Pinkney's hotel room, he wasn't breathing.
"They weren't able to revive him, though attempts were made," said King, who grew up listening to the
The Drifters and had one of the group's CDs in his car on Wednesday.
Pinkney was born in 1925 in Dalzell, S.C., according to a report by Columbia, S.C., television station WLTX.
He would later become part of The Drifters, a group known for such hits as "Under the Boardwalk" and
"Save the Last Dance for Me."
After he left the band in 1958 over a dispute about money, Pinkney formed The Original Drifters.
"You know how they call James Brown the hardest-working man in show business? I believe that was Bill Pinkney,"
said J.R. Berry, a news anchor at WLTX, who had known Pinkney for years.
Berry called Pinkney a legend who was not only a well-known singer but also a World War II veteran who was awarded
a Bronze Star, as well as a former pitcher for the Negro Baseball Leagues.
"He was very patriotic, too," Berry said. "I think it was kind of fitting that he went on this day."
Williams Funeral Home in Sumter, S.C., is handling arrangements.
***************
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Bill Pinkney, the last survivor of the original members of the musical group The Drifters, died Wednesday.
He was 81.
Pinkney was found dead at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, Daytona Beach Police spokesman Jimmie Flynt
said. The death was not considered suspicious, he said.
Pinkney was scheduled to perform for Fourth of July festivities there.
Pinkney's manager, Maxine Porter, declined to discuss his cause of death, but said Pinkney had had health problems.
The Drifters, whose hits include "Under the Boardwalk,""Up on the Roof," and "Save the
Last Dance For Me," still performed Wednesday night. An announcement about Pinkney's death was made after
the show, said the group's publicist, Donnie Lowery.
Pinkney, born in Dalzell, S.C., wasn't with The Drifters when they recorded their biggest hits. He left in the
band in 1958 because of an argument over cash. His distinctive bass voice can be heard on the group's version of
the holiday classic "White Christmas."
Even though he left the group, Pinkney didn't let go of The Drifters' name. He fought for laws allowing performers
or bands to claim an affiliation with a classic group like The Drifters or The Coasters only if at least one member
recorded with the original group.
The Drifters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
Pinkney was a World War II veteran and pitched for the New York Blue Sox of the Negro Baseball League in the late
1940s and early '50s.
Porter said funeral arrangements were pending but that he would be buried in South Carolina.
***************
S.C. Music Icon Dies At 81
Pinkney Was Last Surviving Member Of The Drifters
Bill Pinkney, a beach music pioneer and South Carolina icon, was a showman, a performer who radiated with grace
and style. Pinkney, the last surviving member of The Drifters, the R&B doo-wop group that ascended to the top
of the charts in the 1950s, died Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Pinkney, 81, was found dead in his hotel room
at about 6:30 p.m., according to The Orlando Sentinel newspaper.
The Original Drifters, the group Pinkney fronted, was still a popular attraction at festivals, large gatherings,
fairs and cruises.
The group performed without him Wednesday evening at Daytona Beach’s Fourth of July Red, White & Boom event.
An announcement about Pinkney’s death was made after the show, The Associated Press reported.
Pinkney was a family man who liked to host guests at his home in Sumter. There was rarely a time that one would
walk through the doors and there wasn’t the scent of something — fried chicken, collard greens or corn bread —
wafting through the rooms from the kitchen.
This Friday afternoon, Pinkney’s house was supposed to be the gathering place for another family reunion. The family
will still get together this weekend, but with a more somber tone, Pinkney’s sister Eliza Pearson said Wednesday
night.
“He was so excited,” Pearson said. “We were going to Santee. He had rented a place down there for us.
“It’s such a shock to us.”
Pearson last spoke to her brother early Wednesday.
“It was drizzling, and he was hoping the rain would subside,” she said. “He was upbeat. We left on the note that
he was going to leave early (Thursday) morning.
“He didn’t show any indication (that he was ill). The only thing on his mind was the family reunion.”
Pinkney was born in the community of Dalzell, near Sumter, on Aug. 15, 1925. He entered the Army in 1943 and served
during the historic Normandy invasion.
Pinkney in 1949 moved to New York, where he sang in gospel groups and pitched for the New York Blue Sox, a sandlot
baseball team. There he met Clyde McPhatter, who had a vocal group on Atlantic Records, the premier R&B label
of the day. Atlantic charged McPhatter with putting together a mature singing group, and The Drifters were formed
in 1953.
“I was the top tenor, the fifth voice,” Pinkney said in 2005. “I could sing just as high as a mockingbird.”
The group had hits such as “Money Honey,” “Honey Love,” “Steamboat” and “I Got Myself a Woman.” The Drifters’ doo-wop
version of “White Christmas,” with Pinkney singing lead, was used in the 1991 movie “Home Alone.”
The Drifters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. But Pinkney had exited the group before
it recorded its best-known hits such as “Save the Last Dance For Me,” “Up on the Roof,” “On Broadway” and “Under
the Boardwalk.” In the ’60s, Pinkney began performing as Bill Pinkney and the Original Drifters.
Pinkney had to fight to use the name, and he was still fighting to stop impostors from using The Drifters’ name.
In 2004, the Legislature passed a law that said for a performer or band to claim an affiliation with a classic
group, at least one member must have recorded with the original group. South Carolina was the first state to pass
such a law.
Pinkney’s death shocked the Swinging Medallions, a legendary beach music group from the Upstate. Hank Bartley of
the Medallions, who were performing at Calloway Gardens in Georgia, was told about 20 minutes after the group performed
Wednesday night.
“I really cut my teeth listening to The Drifters,” he said. “We’re losing all kinds of South Carolina greats and,
now, one of my heroes.
“He was an icon of beach music and Carolina music — whatever term you want to put on it.” Bartley said he was fortunate
to share the stage with Pinkney, as did Columbia saxophonist Skipp Pearson, who performed “on the same circuit”
with Pinkney.
“He was a nice cat,” said Pearson, who performed a set at the Clarion Townhouse Hotel on the state’s Beach Music
Day in May. Joe Pinner, a local TV personality who shared master-of-ceremonies duties for Pinkney’s 80th-birthday
party in August 2005, recalled a man who could sing with the best.
“His arrangement of ‘America the Beautiful’ is just as amazing as Ray Charles’,” he said. “I’m so stunned by all
of this. I adored the guy.”
Mike Campbell, son of former Gov. Carroll Campbell, helped promote a celebration of the 40th anniversary of The
Drifters, held at the Sumter Convention Center in 1993. Campbell, reached at his family’s home in Georgetown, brought
his Drifters box set to the beach.
“Bill was just a remarkable individual,” he said. “So few people realize the far-reaching impact that he had on
the music industry.” Campbell drifted into memories of shooting pool with Pinkney at the Governor’s Mansion while
old Drifters records played. Pinkney would sing along while lining up shots.
“He would sound exactly in person as he was sounding on the records, and that’s 30 years after” recording them,
Campbell said. Pinkney will be remembered for his engaging and sparkling smile, a love of music and of cars.
And a love of performing until the very end.
“People still want to see me sing,” Pinkney said before his 80th birthday. “That keeps me going.”
|
